Ariz.'s D.C. delegates split on gun reform

Arizona's Capitol Hill delegation is divided on President Barack Obama's call for gun reforms, sparked by the Dec. 14 shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school.

Sen. John McCain and other Republican delegation members are signaling a willingness to debate the issue, though not immediately, while several of the state's Democratic representatives are calling for quick action to tighten gun laws.

Both sides are in favor of improved mental-health care to help prevent mass shootings, but it's the gun-related proposals, which Democrats could introduce as soon as January, that are expected to cause sharp disagreement.

Among the changes sought by Democrats are a ban on assault weapons, restrictions on extended ammunition magazines and a requirement that private and gun-show sellers conduct background checks on their customers.

Republicans, meanwhile, have stayed largely silent, urging that time be granted for the families of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School to grieve. But a possible blueprint for GOP proposals in response to the massacre may have been outlined Friday by the National Rifle Association, the nation's most prominent gun-rights organization.

CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said gun-control laws won't solve the problem since society will continue to produce "monsters" intent on killing. Instead, the highest priority should be protecting schools by stationing armed guards on campus, he said.

LaPierre also criticized the influence of violent movies and video games, including the online game "Kindergarten Killers," and called for a national registry of the mentally ill and blasted cuts to school-security funding by Congress and the Obama administration.

How Arizona's delegation will come down on the debate is not entirely clear. The state is known for its opposition to gun control. Even Democratic representatives have received top ratings from the NRA. But Arizonans were shaken by a gunman's spree near Tucson close to two years ago that killed six and wounded 13, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Giffords' freshman Democratic successor, Rep. Ron Barber, a survivor of the mass shooting, has become the delegation's loudest advocate for gun control. Though Congress changed no laws in the wake of the southern Arizona shooting, Barber said he sees the Dec. 14 massacre in Newtown, Conn., as a turning point for Washington. A gunman killed 20 children and six adults at the elementary school.

"The shock wave that came across all of us when these 20 children were slaughtered has really changed a lot of points of view," Barber said last week. "The young boy that was buried on Monday was shot 11 times. That's just so atrocious and so awful, you can hardly imagine it."

Barber -- with the support of Democratic Reps. Raśl Grijalva and Ed Pastor -- is calling for a renewed ban on so-called assault weapons and extended magazines as well as the closing of the so-called Brady Law loophole that exempts gun-show sellers from conducting background checks.

In addition, Barber plans to introduce for the second time legislation to improve mental-health funding.

Grijavla acknowledged that many mass shooters are mentally disturbed and that mental-health issues need to be addressed, but said he doesn't want the debate steered only in that direction.

"It's not going to go away," Grijalva said. "This was too brutal, too profound. It touched every household in Arizona. ... Any member of my delegation who is equivocating on this issue is making a huge mistake."

McCain, the state's five-term senior senator and the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, at one time supported closing the gun-show loophole. In 2001, he co-sponsored unsuccessful legislation to end it, but in recent years has shown little interest in revisiting the issue.

At the time, McCain earned the ire of conservative activists and the issue factored into a short-lived recall effort against him. He rates a B+ from the NRA and a C- from Gun Owners of America. His Senate re-election campaigns since 1990 have received $57,525 from gun-rights groups.

"I believe that the American people want us to act; I think we're ready to act," he said. "I'll be glad to consider anything, but I'd like to see a commission of people we respect and admire, and their recommendations, before I would support most any measure."

Sen.-elect Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a libertarian-leaning conservative who gets A's from both gun-rights organizations, told The Arizona Republic that it's still too soon after the killings to discuss gun-control policy. He declined to respond to questions about specific proposals.

"There will be time in the new year to address all these questions," said Flake, who is moving to the Senate after 12 years in the House of Representatives. "Right now, let's just honor the victims and comfort the families. This just happened."

Matt Specht, Flake's House chief of staff, said Friday that the office had received some calls from constituents supporting the president's proposals on guns but that more have urged Flake to defend the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

Through a spokeswoman, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, who represents rural northern Arizona, also urged a delay before debating the issue.

"Those who didn't even wait for the victims to be buried before pointing fingers are simply grandstanding," said Gosar spokeswoman Apryl Marie Fogel. The victims "deserve to have their memories honored and allow their families and community to heal prior to debate."

She said Gosar would "actively participate" in a discussion about "mental-health care, community outreach and involvement, and constitutional rights as well as ways to protect and secure our schools" after the new year.

McCain, Flake and Gosar were endorsed by the NRA's political arm in their most recent races and, as is the case across the country, the NRA has donated to the war chests of Arizona Republicans seeking federal office.

Supporters of gun rights made campaign contributions of about $50,000 to Arizona's GOP congressional candidates this year, according to a Republic analysis of campaign-finance data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. By comparison, there were no contributions from those who have supported gun-control restrictions in the past.

The lopsided support continues a trend that has played out in Arizona and the nation for more than two decades.

Obama on Wednesday announced that Vice President Joe Biden would lead an effort to develop by the end of next month "concrete proposals" that he will push Congress to implement.

While also acknowledging concerns about mental-health-care issues and "a culture that all too often glorifies guns and violence," Obama mentioned several possible gun measures.

"The good news is there's already a growing consensus for us to build from," Obama said at the news conference. "A majority of Americans support banning the sale of military-style assault weapons. A majority of Americans support banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips. A majority of Americans support laws requiring background checks before all gun purchases so that criminals can't take advantage of legal loopholes to buy a gun from somebody who won't take the responsibility of doing a background check at all."

Pastor, the only member of Arizona's 2013-14 delegation to have voted for the 1994 assault-weapons ban, said he has co-sponsored gun-control measures before, only to see them go nowhere as lawmakers fear ramifications in the next campaign. McCain voted against the 1994 ban, which expired in 2004. Proposed renewals of the law, when other delegation members were in office, never made it to the floor for a vote.

"I've seen where elected officials in the Congress have come up announcing their support for gun control and then the next day (they walk) away from it because the NRA got back to them," Pastor said.